Braeden Bumpers
From Environmental Science to Co-owner/Head Distiller at McClintock Distilling
In the Beginning. Braeden Bumpers, along with his college friend (now business partner) Tyler Hegamyer, created McClintock Distilling. Like most craft distillers, they had a lot of family support. Braeden and Tyler had always been interested in doing home brewing. They loved the idea of making something from start to finish. At that time, craft distilling “really wasn’t a thing”, says Braeden.
But… two years after they graduated from Elon University, they started to see some small craft distilleries popping up. Catoctin Creek was one of the first craft distilleries in the area. A friend brought Braeden a bottle, and Braeden thought “This is cool!” Braeden and Tyler went down and toured the distillery, and they were immediately hooked. Both discovered spirits were their true passion.
Braeden and Tyler decided to work for the American Distilling Institute (ADI). They would fly out to support ADI conferences. They worked at conferences and in exchange ADI would let them go to classes so they could start to “dip their toes” into learning everything they could about distilling. Their interest in the Whiskey industry spans almost 13 years. Braeden says he “feels so old.”
Doing the Work. Braeden and Tyler ended up leveraging their ADI engagement into an apprenticeship with a large distillery. They were able to learn the actual hands-on, physical and mechanical means of making spirits. It was right about that time that the laws in Maryland were starting to change. Maryland made it possible for small distilleries to open, including their own in 2016. Maryland now has over 30 craft distilleries, as of 2024. According to Braeden, “It kind of worked along with the timing of where we were at in the process.”
Location, Location, Location. Both Braeden and Tyler are from Maryland. The more they got into the industry, the more they “got little snippets of the history of Maryland Rye and that legacy”, according to Braeden. They were amazed by the heritage that Maryland had, that was essentially completely forgotten.
As Braeden describes it, “They started seriously looking at fundraising, coming back home, looking at different places in Maryland, you know, we were two guys in our young 20s. So, we were mostly looking where can we afford; where can we actually do this?”
And… they stumbled upon…. the building that they are currently in. It is a more than century old, historic building and was one of the first auto mechanic shops in the area. This got them serious about fundraising and they were able to start up with the idea of embracing Maryland heritage and history. Braeden said, “Bridging old world history with new craft distilling, making it one cohesive thing.”
According to Braeden, “we get the foot traffic and location of being in a city (Frederick), but we’re also 10 minutes away from two of the farms that grow a bunch of our stuff.”
What’s in a Name? How did Braeden and Tyler make the decision to go down the path of being McClintock’s and tying it to McClintock Young? According to Braeden, “we had a name when we were going to banks and fundraising for our business plan, all the way up until we ordered our still. We ordered it under the name of the company we wanted.” Unfortunately, he continues, “When we filed for some of our trademark stuff, there was already somebody using the exact same name in New York. So, we were like, oh man, we’ve got to pivot and look at this. And that’s when we were at Tyler’s house, and he was showing me all the cool McClintock documents that he had found and it kind of clicked. The timing was just so fortunate.” We said, “what if we use this guy’s name for our company? What McClintock did is very much like what we’re trying to do.” Their plan was to “take an industry that’s been around for a long time and basically blend the best of classic high-quality ingredients, but with new technologies, new processes, and revolutionize it to the modern era. Now looking back, McClintock is a better name than what we originally had. It’s such a better story and ties into the community here.”
Braeden and Tyler love that McClintock Young had a “lot of ties to agriculture”. They mentioned that “McClintock Young developed a corn husking machine” (which they leverage that name for one of their products). Some of his notable inventions include a self-rake for harvesters, a bicycle, a match-making machine, and several brush-making machines. Braeden says “I don’t know where he found the time to invent all this stuff because there’s 250 inventions. I’m surprised he had time for anything else.” McClintock Young was a prodigy, inventing a steam-powered fire engine when he was twelve. McClintock Young is a constant inspiration to the team at McClintock Distilling. McClintock Young’s descendants love how Braeden and Tyler are weaving his legacy into their distillery.
It takes a Village. When asked to identify his favorite thing to do in the whole process, his response was “I still, to this day now, love that we have a total distilling team. Growing is tough. It means I must do business stuff instead of distilling all the time. But my favorite thing from the beginning until now is developing new stuff. We love playing around with new recipes. My personal passion is growing different heirloom varietals of rye and wheat and corn. I like seeing how all these specific grains change the flavor of whiskey. I like doing a lot of R&D stuff. That has always been my absolute favorite thing to do. It’s great because now we have a team of people that can all work on it together.”
Contributions to the Maryland Whiskey Industry. Braeden and Tyler have contributed to improving the Maryland whiskey industry by educating the public about Maryland rye whiskey and what it is. McClintock Distilling focuses on being collaborative by doing tastings, holding education sessions, hosting people, and making Maryland rye a big part of what they do. Their big focus is on educating people and getting them excited about McClintock’s and Maryland whiskey.
Braeden is a founding member and current Vice President of the Maryland Distillers Guild (MDG). He has served on the education committee and held the roles of secretary and treasurer. Braeden has helped write winning grants for MDG and actively helps recruit new members. Braeden worked with the MDG to establish an annual Maryland Rye Revival Symposium, Maryland Spirits Month in November, and the Spirits of Maryland events held four times a year. He worked with the legislation to officially make Maryland Rye Whiskey the state spirit. Braeden continues to work with lobbyists and fellow guild members to advance the Maryland whiskey industry. The MDG is a cohesive, collaborative group with the vision of raising the whole Maryland rye whiskey industry. He currently chairs the Sustainability Commission for the American Distilling Institute.
McClintock Distilling blends history and modernity by using the best of old-world ingredients and state of the art distilling technology to make their whiskeys, gins and vodkas. McClintock Distilling is an industry leader in the preservation and protection of natural resources. The distillery creates pre-prohibition style handcrafted spirits using innovative and unconventional approaches to their creations. They use sustainable and environmentally friendly production methods. A true grain to glass operation where quality, organic, pesticide-free heirloom grains are ground by hand using a stone burr mill. Braeden and his team repurpose the byproducts as animal feed for Fredrick County livestock. McClintock Distilling takes innovative steps to reduce water consumption by using a proprietary closed loop system, reducing wastewater in the facility by several hundred thousand gallons a year. They purchase 100% renewable electricity from Clean Choice Energy. Braeden and his team partner with local businesses and charities making Frederick a hub for organizations of all kinds.
And the winner is. Braeden and his team were named Distillery of the Year in 2020 at the New York International Spirits Competition. He and his team garnered 20 awards across the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and won SIP awards.
Sacrificing Feels Good. Braeden and Tyler helped contribute to their community during the pandemic by producing about 50,000 gallons of hand sanitizer and donating a lot of it to first responders, hospitals, and retirement communities across Maryland and DC. They feel fortunate to be able to do that! Additionally, they were able to keep all their employees retained during the shutdowns and hired dozens of out-of-work restaurant workers to help as well.
Advice for the New Distillers. According to Braeden, “Opening a distillery will teach you the value of patience. Behind every bottle of whiskey you make, there is a mountain of paperwork to complete. So, everything takes longer than you think.” And lastly, “Before you make anything, make sure you have a great story and have something that really sets yourself apart.”
Life Beyond McClintock Distilling. Braeden grew up in Cabin John Maryland. Currently he and his family live near Frederick Maryland. His grandfather was an entrepreneur, farmer, and hardware store owner in northwest Arkansas. His grandfather’s love of community and work ethic are the inspiration and core by which Braeden lives his life and runs McClintock Distilling.
Looking forward, Braeden hopes to help cement the Maryland Craft Spirits legacy as part of the same conversation with Kentucky bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and New York rye whiskey.
Braeden’s favorite whiskey is McClintock Bootjack Rye and then any type of rye whiskey with a normal size square ice cube to open up the flavor. He served a 10-year old Willett Rye Estate bottle at his wedding.
Braeden says, “I definitely have the best job in the whole world.”
